Reassessing the Summer 2012 season midway through

August 24, 2012

I feel like writing something here and while I have any number of entry
ideas circling through my head I can't manage to get enough spare time,
energy, and enthusiasm to write them. A midseason review of Summer
2012, however, I can bang together pretty easily so
you get it.

(The short summary is that I have added two new shows, Joshiraku
and Nobuna, and effectively dropped two of my initial ones, one because it's bad and one because it's not
good enough.)

Hits:

Moyashimon Returns: I would like more microbes and fermentation
than it is currently providing, but this is doing a reasonable job of
delivering the fun of the first season.

Dog Days': This continues not going anywhere.
I'm a bit sad but I'm still watching it for the same reason Author
is;
it's something I can watch without having to invest too much in it.
I can just sit back and quietly enjoy it.

(Dog Days' is ideal for this because I know there it's extremely
unlikely for there to be any significant sudden angst, dark drama, or
whatever. It'll probably keep on being cheerful light action all the
way through, maybe with a little tinge of more serious stuff towards
the end.)

Jinrui wa Suitai Shimashita: I sometimes feel
like Jinrui is beating me over the head, but when it's on
it's often really on and it's on fairly often. I continue to
really like how the show is willing to be quiet when it's clever (instead of
the all too common habit of making something obvious just to make sure
that you get it).

Jinrui has had all of the best awesome moments of any show this
season so far.

It's quite possible (and even likely) that Jinrui is my kind of
show but not yours, much like UN-GO.

Sword Art Online: This was always nice looking but has now shaped
up to be a competently executed and reasonably engaging show. It's
not really going anywhere right now but I'm willing to give it a pass
while it explores the scenery.

(I believe SAO is currently adopting side stories from the light
novels; if so, it shows.)

SAO has so far avoided beating us over the head with character
death and the whole 'stuck in a game' situation while also not ignoring
the issue, which is more than I expected. The various character
reactions to the situation seem reasonably realistic.

Oda Nobuna no Yabou: This was a late fill-in, but so far it's
been pretty entertaining in a straightforward way and the protagonist
amuses me. It's good that the show isn't really taking itself too
seriously. It's not flawless; in particular it's doing the common anime
thing of not letting the nominally competent and dangerous female
character actually do much more than acting semi-tsundere while the
male protagonist gets to magically solve all (or at least most) of
the problems.

(I was persuaded to give Nobuna a try due to various chatter
in my section of the Twitter-sphere, possibly especially including
Jinx's work.)

Joshiraku: This is entertaining and amusing. I wish I found it
more consistently funny, because then it would be a must-watch
instead of something that I'm working through slowly.

(I know I'm not getting all of the jokes here, even with explanations
from the translators, but I find even the jokes that I don't get to be
interesting for reasons that don't fit in this margin.)

Entertaining but still hovering on the edge:

Campione: Some bits of this are tiresomely ordinary but it
continues to be decently executed and thus decently watchable.
I'm enjoying it partly for Erica Blandelli, who is a character type
that we don't get to see very often.

Kyoukai Senjou no Horizon II: This continues to deliver a
good amount of crazy wackiness and decent action, which is what
keeps it watchable for me. The ninja is my current favorite
character.

(As far as I'm concerned, the less Toori and Horizon talk the better.)

Hagure Yuusha no Estetica: The more I actually think about this show
the more I feel conflicted and a bit disturbed. On the one hand the
action and plot are decent. On the other hand it spends a lot of
its time on serious (and sometimes extreme) fanservice and the male
protagonist's behavior is objectively decidedly skeevy. If I tune out
the fanservice (which is my usual reflex) and don't think too much
about the protagonist's behavior it's an enjoyable show, but I'm not
sure I should be doing that.

(Writing this entry may have persuaded me to more or less put it
on suspension. I'll see. Certainly I have enough to watch this season
without watching any more of it, and it's not so interesting that I'll
miss it if I don't watch any more.)

Now declared as misses:

Muv-Luv Alternative - Total Eclipse (#4): I watched about three episodes
too many of this; in the future I hope that I'm smart enough to drop
shows that waste my time for the first two episodes. There's just
nothing interesting in this show for me and plenty that's boring,
irritating, or cliched (or all of the above).

Rinne no Lagrange season 2 (#2): There's nothing wrong with it
but it's apparently not interesting enough to make me sufficiently
enthused to watch more.

In ongoing shows, Eureka Seven AO continues to rock while honesty
compels me to admit that I haven't watched Accel World for several
weeks; it's possible that the charm has worn off and I've gotten bored
without realizing it.

(On the other hand, writing this may cause me to start with AW again.)

I agree; out of what I'm watching, only Jinrui comes close to AO and
AO is ahead.

(It's hard for me to fairly compare the two because they are doing so
radically different things and I enjoy them in completely different
ways. But AO is much more compulsive watching for me and I find
Jinrui much more erratic and hit or miss.)